The Prideful Mr Darcy and The Present-Time Lady
by Esm3rald
Summary: Kate Bennet is a normal 20 years old English Lit. student at the Hertfordshire University until she wakes up one day suddenly much younger and in 1801. She has not simply ended up 200 years in the past though, she has become one of the characters of 'Pride and Prejudice',10 yrs before the story begins. How her presence will be able to change the story as we all know it? Darcy/OC.


**THE PRIDEFUL MR DARCY AND THE PRESENT-TIME LADY**

**Summary:**_ Kate Bennet is a normal 20 years old English Lit. student at the University of Hertfordshire until she wakes up one day suddenly ten years younger and in 1801. She has not simply ended up 200 years in the past though, she has become one of the characters of 'Pride and Prejudice', 10 years before the story begins. How her presence will be able to change the story as we all know it? Darcy/OC. _

**This is my new story. A P&P Regency one. I wanted to write for some time a 'Pride and Prejudice' story and I first thought about writing an Elizabeth/Darcy one, but there are so many of them and surely much better written than what I could have ever been able to do, so I thought why not write about an OC? - it seems to be my specialty since most of my stories are about OC characters -, an OC that comes from the present-time? So here I am.**

**Like I said, the story will not be Darcy/Elizabeth, but it also is kind of a Kitty/Darcy story since my OC will kind of replace Kitty Bennet(I thought about replacing Elizabeth but where's the fun in that?). In fact my OC will be called Katherine Bennet. Since I think though that Kitty is a little too young for Mr Darcy, my OC will be the third Bennet sister - instead of Mary - and she'll be 20 years old while Lizzie will be 21 and Jane 22. Mary will therefore be the fourth Bennet sister and she will be 18 years old with Lydia still as the youngest at 15. I hope you like it. I know that this is really short but it's just the Prologue, to better introduce the story. The other chapter****s will be much, much longer.**

**Prologue**

"_I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of anything than of a book!" _

**_(Caroline Bingley, Pride and Prejudice - Chapter 11)_**

**May 2001 - University of Hertfordshire(England)**

Kate was lying on her bed, reading once again. It was Saturday night and she was alone in her room. Her roommate had gone to a party but Kate was not exactly in the mood for it that evening. Not that she did not love to socialize because she did, it was that sometimes she liked to have a little time for herself, like tonight. She loved to read and that was one of the reasons she was an English Literature student at the University of Hertfordshire. It was her first year there and she could never be more happy with her choice. She knew her aunt and uncle didn't approve - they wanted her to study law like her parents did - but she knew that that was the best choice for her. She had always loved literature since she was little, browsing through the shelves of her uncle's study, immersing herself in the pages that told of different times and places. But her favorite book had always been 'Pride and Prejudice'. There were so many things she liked about it, and not just the plot of the story or its characters, it was also the language used and the manners of the time, 'the gentleman like behavior' of the men, the amazing dresses the women used to wear. Of course the main thing she loved about the novel was the love story between Mr Darcy and Elizabeth. Everything, from their inauspicious beginning, to their numerous misunderstandings, to their many flaws - Darcy's pride and Elizabeth's prejudices against him most of all -, to how they were able to become better people thanks to the influence of the other. Of course there were also characters present in the story who were so very entertaining simply because they were so ridiculous like Mr Collins, Mrs Bennet or Lady Catherine de Bourgh.

Unfortunately there was also one character she didn't care much about one way or another, simply because there was so little information about her, and that was Kitty Bennet, the character with whom she shared her name. Of the others members of the family it was easy to sketch their characters and understand their motives but of Kitty Bennet there was so very little. The only thing mentioned about her was that she could be intelligent if only she could stop herself from following Lydia's every move. And that was it. Not a description of her actual personality, or her likes or dislikes, her hobbies, not even of her physical appearance.

"I wonder what it would be like, if Kitty was different, if she had an actual personality of her own instead of being Lydia's shadow. In what way the story would change? Would it change at all?" Kate wondered aloud. And then she continued, thinking aloud of random things. "It certainly must have been nice living in that time period. At least for the riches and the nobles. Of course the women were not exactly free to do the things they are able to do now. And of course there was no electricity or gas or running water at the time. But the gentlemen were so nice, helping the ladies to descend carriages and escorting them to the various rooms and standing up when a lady entered a room. What it would be like living in that time period, or even being a character in one of Austen's novels?" She paused a moment and then said. "Well, I personally would love to meet Mr Darcy, I'd bear everything not exactly pleasant about that time period just to meet him. Of course I would need to stay there a lot of years to learn everything I could about living in the regency period or run the risk of appearing ridiculous and unlady-like in his eyes." She smiled at her silliness and then checked the clock. It was past twelve and she was starting to get tired. She put her book on her nightstand, she turned off the light and she went to sleep. She had no idea that starting from tomorrow, her life would never be the same again.


End file.
